Interpro Wins For Leinster And Munster

Title holders Munster and their main rivals Leinster made winning starts to the IRFU Women's Interprovincial Championship over the weekend, with Munster running in seven tries against Ulster in their historic first Thomond Park outing and Leinster scoring five tries in total in their opening success against Connacht.

Helped by a cohesive second half display, Leinster got their Interprovincial campaign off to a winning start on Sunday afternoon with a five-try 33-8 victory over Connacht in Donnybrook.

Philip Doyle's side went ahead on the 20 minute mark through number 8 Debbie Clarke who went over off the back of a superbly well-executed maul. The try was converted by Nora Stapleton who was making her debut at full-back for the province.

Throughout the opening 40 minutes, Connacht remained well in touch but were unable to convert their possession onto the scoreboard. For large periods Leinster were pinned back with some well-placed tactical kicking from out-half Clare Raftery.

Strong ball carrying from captain Carol Staunton, fellow back rower Claire Molloy and front rower Ruth O'Reilly gave the away side a sense of urgency.

However, the Leinster pack dominated the lineouts and negated that set piece as an attacking platform for Connacht.

Leinster eventually began to string some phases together and six minutes into the second half, having sucked in the Connacht defence through strong running by skipper Fiona Coghlan and flanker Sinead Ryan, the ball was spun out to winger Amy Davis who sprinted past the cover to score in the corner.

Most notably, Leinster maximised their dominance up front by using the rolling maul to great effect in the second half.

Indiscipline, however, was an unfortunate feature of the Leinster game and following a series of high tackles and infringements around the breakdown, they were reduced to 14 when Coghlan was sin-binned for persistent fouling from the team as a whole.

Connacht capitalised on this and launched a couple of meaningful attacks of their own with penetrating running from winger Alison Miller.

Miller broke clean through the midfield on two occasions, the second line break eventually, after recycling of possession, leading to Connacht's try in the dying minutes of the game from winger Emma Cleary.

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Tournament Director Garrett Tubridy sets the scene for an exciting weekend of rugby at UCD where 16 Women's Sevens teams will battle it out at for one qualifying spot for the Rio Olympics. Tickets are available from www.ticketmaster.ie/sevens.

Tadhg Furlong reflects on a disappointing day for Ireland against South Africa. However, he will take positives from his first Test start and be ready to build for the final match of the series in Port Elizabeth.

Paddy Jackson is preparing for Ireland's second Test against South Africa on Saturday (kick-off 5pm local time/4pm Irish time). The Ulster out-half has been checking out Ellis Park in advance of the match.